Quote:Second i have to choose between light and dark magic for the big battle.
I would take dark magic if my mage guild and my opponent permits it ofcourse just because it is more tricky against a might faction, nothing more. I am talking for puppet master and frenzy.

Academy is Light / Summoning oriented, though. Choosing Dark is really dependent on what you're facing, because you will need to get the level 4 and 5 spells from *their* Mage Guilds. Only viable when you're up against Haven, Inferno or Necropolis, I'd say.

Yes, Academy is Light / Summoning oriented but u have a good chance to get a worthy high level dark spell through library. Building your wizard on this chance does not seem promising, but sometimes mass slow and mass suffering can be enough when you are facing a might faction.

As you said above, dark magic is better against some factions, instead of light which you get standard benefits beside the enemy you are facing.

Mass slow and mass haste (which they are the 2 basic dark and light spells) maybe seem kinda the same but they are entirely different during the fight. When you are playing a wizard/warlock you want your hero play more often than the creatures. Since u cannot have a better initiative on your hero (empathy is a rare exception) you have to lower the enemy's creatures initiative through mass slow.
The opposite happens when you play a might faction. You want your creatures to play more often against the enemy hero (imagine playing against a warlock for example), mass haste > mass slow in this case.

Anyway you have to count several things before choosing dark above light. Maybe a mage vault or a pyramid in the map would be enough for choosing dark, even if it still has some risks.

well, fire elementals are one of the better elementals you can get... actually probably the best in the long run.
Earth Elementals are slow and generally get ignored, Air Elementals are fast but frail, and Water Elementals are limited to 2-3 spell casts. Fire Elementals on the other hand have decent initiative and 50 shots.
____________
In ur base killing ur doods... and raising them as undeads.

Summoning Magic: Master of Conjuration, Master of Earthblood and Fire Warriors (btw are Magma dragons immune to the attack of fire elementals?)

War Machines & Attack: To get that great armor sundering, triple ballista thingy. Also Archery doesn't hurt?

Sorcery: To cast my spells more frequently (Summon elementals, maybe resurrection?) I picked Mana Regeneration and Arcane training, no idea which could be the third ability? Any advices?

And tell me ehich hero to pick up next time when I'm playing with Academy.

Try Razzak , he is real killer in the late game.
I see you didn`t pick up enlightenment, point for you.I don`t know why this skill is so popular and many claim that it`s a must for wizzard. Bull s**t i found it rather useless for them- you don`t need extra knowledge - your hero will have enough, +2 or +3 to spell power - is it really worth it ? I don`t say that enlightenment sucks- no, it`s quite good skill , it works fine for warlock or necromancer (intelligence)

Or Jhora, for faster cast. With Razzak you'd also need Logistics and March of the Golems.
____________But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it.

Quote: Bull s**t i found it rather useless for them- you don`t need extra knowledge - your hero will have enough, +2 or +3 to spell power - is it really worth it ? I don`t say that enlightenment sucks-

What about artificer which is influenced by knowledge? Granted the wizard has no need of intelligence perk.

Summoning Magic: Master of Conjuration, Master of Earthblood and Fire Warriors (btw are Magma dragons immune to the attack of fire elementals?)

War Machines & Attack: To get that great armor sundering, triple ballista thingy. Also Archery doesn't hurt?

Sorcery: To cast my spells more frequently (Summon elementals, maybe resurrection?) I picked Mana Regeneration and Arcane training, no idea which could be the third ability? Any advices?

And tell me ehich hero to pick up next time when I'm playing with Academy.

Hmmm, Felunio's rule of thumb is that 6 skills maxed out and a few perks is better than a few skills maxed out and lots of perks.

Excluding artificer and its perks, you've got about 28 levels there.

Max out Havez's Artificer skill and War Machines quickly. Attack is a hard skill to get to don't hold your breath for it. But if you are able to attack the map with just gremlins, golems, and a ballista go ahead and invest in some war machine perks and wizard perks while you're waiting to get attack offered.

Mark of the Wizard and Ballista should be the first 2 skills you take
If you do get attack start making your long term plans. Charting might be helpful.

You're already level 21 and you haven't gotten a spell school yet. For economy's sake Summoning magic is a better tact with this build. It only requires 3 points to be highly effective. Light Magic requires 4-5 points to maximize its potential.

Quote:Second i have to choose between light and dark magic for the big battle.
I would take dark magic if my mage guild and my opponent permits it ofcourse just because it is more tricky against a might faction, nothing more. I am talking for puppet master and frenzy.

Academy is Light / Summoning oriented, though. Choosing Dark is really dependent on what you're facing, because you will need to get the level 4 and 5 spells from *their* Mage Guilds. Only viable when you're up against Haven, Inferno or Necropolis, I'd say.

Yes, Academy is Light / Summoning oriented but u have a good chance to get a worthy high level dark spell through library. Building your wizard on this chance does not seem promising, but sometimes mass slow and mass suffering can be enough when you are facing a might faction.

As you said above, dark magic is better against some factions, instead of light which you get standard benefits beside the enemy you are facing.

Mass slow and mass haste (which they are the 2 basic dark and light spells) maybe seem kinda the same but they are entirely different during the fight. When you are playing a wizard/warlock you want your hero play more often than the creatures. Since u cannot have a better initiative on your hero (empathy is a rare exception) you have to lower the enemy's creatures initiative through mass slow.
The opposite happens when you play a might faction. You want your creatures to play more often against the enemy hero (imagine playing against a warlock for example), mass haste > mass slow in this case.

Anyway you have to count several things before choosing dark above light. Maybe a mage vault or a pyramid in the map would be enough for choosing dark, even if it still has some risks.

summoning, dark and destructive for wizards are pretty much gambles. summoning because thats its nature and dark and destructive because u could get owned by the random spells.

light is the safe one, but its not the creeping power that IMO wizards really want.
____________

Quote:
summoning, dark and destructive for wizards are pretty much gambles. summoning because thats its nature and dark and destructive because u could get owned by the random spells.

light is the safe one, but its not the creeping power that IMO wizards really want.

No my friend, light is pretty much worthless for a wizard. Going light, means that you are going late game, and it is the last thing you should be aiming for unless you are facing necro or inferno.

Dark is better for creeping and is very effective when used in the first 10-15 levels when even a light inclined might opponent can't build up his guild to protect himself with magic immunity.(which is incidentally what Cooch should have done in the first place. Leaving dwarves unharrassed till late game with a magic faction is pure madness!!! .
That means that unless your opponent is necro, dark is the way to go. Against inferno, go for both dark and light and watch the carnage

Also summoning is good to fall back to when creeping unless you haven't got neither Fire Trap nor wasp swarm in the first 2 levels which means you are unlucky (25% chance). Summoning is not a gamble, destructive for wizard OTOH is!

And i really can't understand why you consider dark such a risk. Dark has a 50% chance of popping up with library in 4th and 5th levels. Actually the chance of dark not appearing in 4 and 5 level is 25% which is not such a big gamble. Also in maps with utopias or mage vaults or Pyramids, going dark is even less a risk.
Also consider that you can use mass slow or mass suffering in great effectiveness against AI and player alike and you will surely have dark spells in the guild at levels 1-3.
____________

Quote:No my friend, light is pretty much worthless for a wizard. Going light, means that you are going late game, and it is the last thing you should be aiming for unless you are facing necro or inferno.

I beg to differ. You can't rush others in all maps, you may have to face the opponent on week 4 or 5. Motw + resurrection and mass buffs are also effective vs sylvan and haven with supress light for the latter.
____________DON'T BE A NOOB, JOIN A.D.V.E.N.T.U.R.E.

Quote:No my friend, light is pretty much worthless for a wizard. Going light, means that you are going late game, and it is the last thing you should be aiming for unless you are facing necro or inferno.

I beg to differ. You can't rush others in all maps, you may have to face the opponent on week 4 or 5. Motw + resurrection and mass buffs are also effective vs sylvan and haven with supress light for the latter.

By the time you have cast your buffs sylvan and heaven units will already be upon you. Also in a situation that you have both played your buffs, your hero becomes ineffective because he acts at init 10 whereas all other creatures with expert mass haste will act at a faster rate. That leaves you to 2 mass castings, propably 3 till the game is decided. Then what?
Motw+Ressurection is workable only if you can deal damage in the meantime to play the attrition game, and against a might faction you won't. Palas kill your stacks "one shot". Sylvan will have first blood before your buffs get going and that means heavy loses that mass buffs or resurrection can't refund.
____________

honestly I don't think heaven player will have that many paladins by week 4 or even 5 to make them unstoppable killers... magic should have the edge there. Besides if you have a +12 defense on academy troops they're tough to take down even with 20 paladins Ofcourse it depends on the player but I doubt mught can do that much damage mid game. I will agree with you that academy lacks in damage dealers at this point, so ther army won't be too shiny, but I guess the point will be to buff your troops to survive long enough and to deal damage with magic.

Quote: but I guess the point will be to buff your troops to survive long enough and to deal damage with magic.

That is what i 'm saying all along. Light only helps you survive, it doesn't help you win. You need another school to help you win through the fight.
For example Playing a mass dark (and a puppet or motw frenzy next) at that point where he can't cleanse effectively, will give you the game.
Also i wouldn't count on haven not having 45+ paladins when i attack him week 5
At that point you won't have an effective army to face him and light doesn't change that one bit.

Quote:I mentioned that because I never take just one magic type and I always have sorcery.

I am absolutely certain that you will have sorcery and another school by then.

I am simply pointing out that in order to make the most out of your caster, it is essential to calm down the battle (in other words mass slow, mass suffering) to take advantage of the abilities of the caster hero. In a situation where both players have played mass haste OTOH, your caster has less time to cast and stats become more important than spells.
IMHO dark magic is more in principle to the caster style that the wizard emphasizes, than light magic.
____________